Yesterday, she wanted to start her laundry as she usually does on Fridays now.
I was with her in our laundry room.
When she tried to start the AEG L61670FL, all she got was an EH0 code.
The service menu narrowed it down to an EH1 error, which ment the machine thought the power supply frequency was to high or to low - which it obviously wasn't.
That usually is caused by a faulty line filter - which in most designs are a discrete part, but on that machine is part of the main PCB.
That had be replaced last year when the machine was still under extended warranty coverage. However, at first, that wasn't mounted correctly so it would bang against the cabinet during spin.
I think that might be the culprit that led to that early failure.
Anyway, it is no longer under warranty, a replacement part was to expensive given the dampers and bearings both were on their way out.
That was my grandma's machine, but since she passed away, my mum has 2 machines on her own, and wanted a replacement still.
Given I was still in town she wanted something basically same day.
The Beko she has is an OK enough washer, but the follow up model isn't quite as cheap as that one was on offer. And since load sensing really isn't good on the Beko, I pointed her towards 2 options.
IKEA has Whirlpool clone washers now, with 5 years warranty as standard and really ok prices.
That would have been 399€, but only had a 1400rpm spin.
What she ultimately chose was the second, somewhat more expensive option.
LG is running a promo for a few weeks around Germany where you get a 5 year warranty for free if you register the machine with them.
The warranty goes through Aquilo, a Zürich insurance subsidiary that my old place of work worked with aswell, so I know they are pretty low hazzle to deal with.
That ment she could get the machine she now has - an F6WV709P1 - for just under 600€.
That machine has LGs very good load sensing, 1600rpm, a pretty big drum for bedding or such, TurboWash with recirculation and - a thing that surprised me - pretty low cost parts.
Replacement part prices stay pretty consistent for the first 10 years of a machines life by nature of how the stocking systems usually are run. (Parts are usually produced once at the end of the life of a product and stored. Prices are then pinned from day one so that once supply runs out, you are at least at net 0.)
And LG sells most parts for like half of even BSH or similar. The replacement PCB to this machine is less than 100€, a spider would only be 70€, even the dampers are like half of other brands.
Brought it home and - except for the insane 3h wash time on Synthetics regardless of load size - have nothing to complain with so far.
It's quiet, the load sensing bugs I had with my machine from the same platform a few years back appear to be mostly resolved.
It washes and rinses perfectly well.
It even reached the full 95C according to the temp readout trick (still works on this one) on the maiden wash.
These machines were always well enough for most people.
Durability of LGs was always OK - never great - as long as you knew what their thing was.
And for the price - if it last 7 or 8 years - it's fine.
First was a handful of towels on the TurboWash 39 cycle, which at 60C and 1600rpm came in at 1:02.
It still does a spray-type rinse and a very deep rinse.
Since these weren't dirty I used very little detergent and for only one deep rinse the results were actually surprisingly good. Even the final spin was pretty long.
Only downside was it not getting to 60C.
Next was some cleaning clothes.
I washed them on Cottons 60C with the Steam option selected.
Any load below half appears to sense the Cottons cycles to 2 rinses and a "short" mainwash.
That cycle took 1:48 - but the steam option was rather useless IMO.
They did come out very clean though.
Last was a few T-shirts and underwear.
On Cottons 40C, prewash and an extra rinse the cycle was 1:25h.
Results were great, 3 rinses, half an hour main wash, 10min prewash.
Cycle times for small-medium cotton loads appear to be 58min for 40C or below, 1:28 for 60C and 1:58 for 95C.
And extra rinse is 10min, a prewash is 15min, intensive appears to add 30min total (which should be 10min for an extra rinse and 20min longer main wash).
That's from the preliminary and quick load sensing testing I did.
Comes to the Rescue!
